Moving towards net zero by 2035 is going to have a significant cost.
That’s the message from SaskPower in one of its public engagement webinars on the business of power.
Director of business analysis and treasury, Derek Bjornson, says along with their regular costs, there will need to be capital projects to build the green energy.
Prior to the new federal regulations announced this past summer, SaskPower expected to meet the needs with natural gas and wind, where rate increases would be similar to inflation over the years.
Bjornson says, “Rates will increase 30 to 40 per cent due to normal inflationary pressures. On top of the inflationary pressures, projects required to meet net zero will likely result in another 60 per cent, meaning rates will approximately double.”
This is a preliminary estimate.
Bjornson adds that most of the impact will be after 2030, when new technologies are able to go online with the gride, like possibly, Small Modular Reactors.
The federal government has said there is federal funding to help with the costs, and that is already happening.
SaskPower has already secured some funding for work in SMRs and other projects.

To give you an idea of how much power is being used by what sector of the population, SaskPower ‘s manager of key accounts, Andi Kriekle, states that key account customers use 60 per cent of the province’s electricity but is only seven per cent of the customer total.
Some of the examples in this industrial category would be potash mines and processing facilities.
She says, “We know that for a lot of our key account customers SaskPower is their largest operating expense. In some cases, we make up 80 per cent of our commercial customers’ operating costs. When you are looking at a $2 million power bill each month, any kind of increase will have a significant increase to your bottom line.”
She emphasizes they never take any rate increase lightly, but the transition to green energy will mean rising costs.
For every billion dollars SaskPower spends moving to net zero, it’s estimated about a two per cent rate increase will be needed and another one per cent for other associated costs like taxes, payments to landowners and maintenance costs.